Elana Miller, MD

The research of my physician-scientist mom, Dr. Meredith Halks Miller, led to the founding of the revolutionary $8B cancer diagnostics company @GrailBio, but she was recently written out of their origin story. Setting the record straight here: zenpsychiatry.com/grail-sexism-s… #WomenInSTEM

In Episode 1 of our GLP-1 & Longevity Series, Dr. Jim Lanzilotti — architect of Healthspan’s GLP-1 Longevity Protocol — joins the clinical team to examine what GLP-1 receptor activation is actually doing inside the body. Rather than focusing on body weight alone, the discussion explores how these therapies influence insulin signaling, hepatic glucose production, vascular function, and inflammatory pathways — systems increasingly linked to long-term metabolic health. This episode lays the mechanistic foundation for the entire series. If you’re interested in how correcting metabolic signaling, not simply reducing calories, may reshape chronic disease risk and aging trajectories, this conversation is for you.

GLP-1 medications are often framed as weight-loss drugs. But the biology tells a much bigger story. In Episode 1 of our GLP-1 & Longevity Series, the Healthspan clinical team explores why this class of medications may represent one of the most important medical developments of our generation—affecting metabolism, cardiovascular health, liver function, brain resilience, and potentially the trajectory of aging itself. We move beyond headlines to examine what GLP-1s are actually doing inside the body—and why many of their benefits appear independent of weight loss. youtube.com/watch?v=G6grUg…

For decades, scientists have attributed the decline in fertility after age 35 mainly to chromosomal errors in aging eggs. Yet new evidence suggests the process begins earlier—and within the cellular machinery that maintains egg quality and longevity. A new study examined the use of rapamycin, a compound long studied in longevity research, in women undergoing IVF. The results were notable: short-term, low-dose rapamycin doubled the success rate of IVF compared with standard protocols. The study also traced the biology behind this improvement, showing that as women reach their mid-30s, ovarian cells begin to overproduce proteins while their repair and recycling systems slow—an imbalance that gradually undermines egg quality. For researchers in the field of aging, this pattern of overactivity in cellular growth machinery reflects a familiar signature seen across multiple tissues. Once again, the mTOR pathway—long associated with the acceleration of aging—appears to play a central role, this time within the ovary. Taken together, these findings offer a new perspective on reproductive aging. Fertility loss after 35 may reflect not only a depletion of eggs, but also a cellular shift toward growth at the expense of repair—a process that appears more amenable to intervention than once thought. In this week’s Research Review, we examine the details of this study, exploring its methods, results, and implications for reproductive longevity, IVF outcomes, and the broader biology of aging—where the same imbalance between growth and repair drives decline across nearly every tissue system in the body. Read the full review here: gethealthspan.com/research/artic…

@dantawfik So proud of you guys!

A mentor of mine is a GP in a LA fund. He's been helping me work through problems and help with ideation for almost a decade before ever being an investor. 10 years later he's going to be the biggest investor in our current round. That's the long game value add.

My husband @dantawfik is launching his tech healthcare venture, Zen Patient, which makes it simple to launch a DTC telehealth platform. The traditional paradigm of healthcare delivery is changing, for the better. So proud of you baby and glad to be on your rocketship :-)

The power of the pen. @ElanaMD wrote about her mother’s research that led to the founding of @GrailBio. A Fast Company article has been amended to include Dr. Meredith Halks-Miller’s contribution to science, & recent articles in The Economist and WSJ lead with her discovery.

@fdesouza You forgot to mention in your @WSJ op ed that the “team” behind the development of GRAIL’s test was my mom, Dr. Meredith Halks Miller, and you also forgot her name when you were recently interviewed by @TheEconomist. I hope you remember her name now: economist.com/business/2021/…

Read more about the story of Dr. Meredith Halks Miller here by @ElanaMD: twitter.com/elanamd/status… #WIM #WIMmonth #WomenInSTEM

My mom, Dr. Meredith Halks Miller, is starting to get the recognition she deserves for her original research that led to the founding of @GrailBio: economist.com/business/2021/… @TheEconomist #WomenInSTEM Proud of you mom

@aaronquinlan That's my mom! I'm the "daughter with the blog" who's referenced... here is my post that first brought attention to the issue, which is what led the columnist for The Economist to reach out to my mom to interview her: zenpsychiatry.com/grail-sexism-s…

A brief story partly about Grail's early cancer detection attempts. The more interesting aspect for me was the reported lack of credit that Meredith Halks Miller has received for the early observations underlying its launch.

We need to remove the administrative burdens of treating patients and spend more time building relationships with them - listen to their stories, and learn their beliefs. It's not just about finding the right prescription, it's understanding how you can heal them as a whole.

What I’ve discovered is that the most meaningful change comes through not just effort, but insight. It’s not about putting your nose to the grindstone and forcing yourself to feel a certain way, but about learning about yourself, and taking actions that align with your values.

I’ve been there before too, even when everything in life looks good “on paper,” still not feeling happy or satisfied. I’ve felt blocked from doing things I knew I should do, without understanding why.

Are you so busy running around doing all the things you're supposed to that you don’t even realize something is "off" until you stop? Maybe for a weekend off or vacation – and in the silence and calm are flooded with an unsettled feeling that something in your life isn’t right?

Truth from my husband @dantawfik

An amazing humor piece from my friend @valeriegroth... the kind that makes you do a laugh-cry, because at first you laugh because it's funny, and then you cry because it's true: index.medium.com/why-sending-us…

(9) people can handle no a lot better than you think. 4. Let people experience the consequences of their actions. We say yes to people we love because we don’t want bad things to happen to them. But trust me, you’re not doing that person any favors.

(8) 3. People can handle “no” a lot better than you think. Often we say yes to things just because we’re afraid we’re going to hurt the other person’s feelings or make them feel bad. But trust me, as someone who’s had to say no in some pretty difficult situations,

(1) We live in a culture where friends, family, advertisers, solicitors, coworkers, bosses, etc., are often asking us for things that we simply do not have the time, energy, or money to say “yes” to.